User blog:Primussupremus/Clarkes 3rd law and its implications to the future of mankind and the universe.
Everyone knows who Arthur C. Clarke was the British science fiction writer, popular science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, futurist, television host and part time philosopher. Clarkes most famous project his semi-magnum opus if you like 2001:A Space Odyssey created with the help of the brilliant Stanley Kubrick was an allegory for the development of mankind towards godhood with the unseen aliens representing this godlike state of superintelligence. The film which came slightly before the book has been described as the greatest film ever made, the greatest story ever told and a film beyond films themselves, to me the film is not just a work of art rather it is a stage in our evolution the beginning of our journey towards the singularity towards what theologians and mystics would call God or the Godhood. It is a profoundly spiritual film that has to be experienced an infinite number of times to understand it completely, every interpretation seems correct and yet only one of them holds the complete truth. With that little introduction to Kubrick and 2001 over let us go into the main focus of this blog that of Clarkes 3rd law whichs "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". To understand how this law affects us and will affect us we need to back some 100 years ago when in 1917 find an ordinary citizen if such a person exists and bring them back to 2017. To this person of 1917 the world we live in today would seem incredible beyond the wildest science fiction stories, they might think they were on a different planet or they might think that it was all a hoax created using some nifty new film technique. If you were to show them a modern day personal computer they would be shocked out of their minds and likely need a glass of water, when they look at the date on the bottom of the glass it reads "made in China 2016" after seeing this label they realise that they are not in fact on another planet but instead in the somewhat distant future. After having this revelation they ask you to show them more of ithis fantastic world they have now found themselves in the first place you take them is an art gallery which positively shocks them when they see digitally reconstructed phtographs and people wearing futuristic looking clothes. The scenes in the photographs you show him depict what life is like today in 2017 with metalic capsules transporting people across the world and electronic brains transmitting data wireless around the world to form a kind of global brain. During his time in the gallery he sees many photographs including some from the start of ww2 which gives this person from the past a better understanding of where his world is heading. After visiting the art gallery you take him on a tour of the city and answer his many questions such as "what's the internet?" and "who is Stephen Hawking?" After answering all of his questions in as much detail as you send them back to 1917 armed with knowledge from their future. But 100 years isn't long enough to make technology seem like magic instead you need to go back to 1017 when people were sill fanatically religious and science was seen as something to be feared and hated. If you were to bring a person from this period back with you to 2017 even someone as smart as Alhazen they would probably die of shock because they world they live in and the world you live in is vastly different. The further back in time you go the more incomprehensible the world of today would seem, however even we in our so called modern age would appear like ants to the people of 3017. If you think imagining 100 years is difficult try to imagine with at least 80% accuracy what the world of 3017 will be like, you can't simply because that world is far beyond your reach and any attempt to quantify it will likely cause you die or at least go mad. To end I would like to alter Clarkes 3rd law into something more appropriate. If point A represents the past and point B represents the future then the further away point A is from point B the more mysterious point B would appear to point A. Category:Blog posts